Environment

9/11 tribute lights may be bird hazards

A new study recommends bright lights around homes, stadiums and construction sites be turned off during migration season.

NEW YORK (AP) — To humans, the twin blue beams shining upward from lower Manhattan each Sept. 11 evoke solemn memories of the 2001 terrorist attacks. But to migrating birds, they're a potentially fatal attraction, according to a scientific study published Monday.

During the seven-year study at National September 11 Memorial and Museum, researchers noticed thousands of birds were drawn to the annual light display, causing them to waste precious energy circling and calling and risking collisions with buildings or capture by predators.